01 November 2010

The Reading Should Come Prior to the Critique

[Update 11/2: Ryan Avent emails to acknowledge that he has not in fact read my book. He then seems to want to further debate its content. I'll pass.]

In my classes, students who don't do the required reading are easy to spot. The primary indicator is that they don't have a clue as to what the reading actually says, so they wind up saying some foolish or embarrassing things. Ryan Avent, who blogs at The Economist, finds himself in exactly such a spot.

In a blog post critiquing my book, The Climate Fix, he carefully explains that instead of what I "pretend" to argue in the book, I should instead have been calling for

A low but rising carbon tax

With proceeds invested into things that show immediate benefits to the public

That I should argue that the environment and economy are not trade-offs

Damn, why didn't I think of those things? Some helpful advice: Read the book before critiquing.